Did North Korea Recycle Your Laptop?

That's the question hovering over last week’s news that Chinese authorities had recently broken up an e-waste smuggling ring responsible for delivering 72,000 metric tons of prohibited junk via North Korea to China’s shores in 2013. Chinese news accounts hailed the bust as the biggest in recent e-waste history, requiring a four-month investigation involving 500 police officers. Most of the goods originated in Japan, with some also coming from the United States and the European Union.